Peter Dickson
The Eastern Cape government has nipped in the bud an audacious plan by councils in the province to give themselves multimillion-rand golden handshakes ahead of the local government elections.
MEC for Local Government and Housing Gugile Nkwinti gave the mayors of East London, Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and Despatch less than 12 hours to explain their plans before before publishing a proclamation in the provincial Government Gazette outlawing the councillors’ schemes.
Last week the councils, which are saddled with massive service-charge arrears and battling to deliver basic services, decided to award their councillors once-off pension packages ahead of the December 5 elections.